Q19: What is "depth of field"?

A:In any photograph there will be a range of distances over which objects appear to be in sharp focus. This range of distances is called the "depth of field". The important word is "appear". Only points at one distance from the lens will truely be in focus (i.e. as sharp as they could possibly be). Everywhere else the image will be less sharp. The range over which the image looks sharp is the depth of field - and obviously this is somewhat subjective since what looks sharp to you may not look sharp to me! It also depends on how much the image is enlarged, how closely you view it and so on. Clearly then, "depth of field" is a slightly arbitrary concept. In practice it is usually defined in terms of an acceptable "circle of confusion" size. This is the size (on the slide or negative) of an image of a point at the limits of the "depth of field" and for 35mm its value is about 30 microns (0.03mm). For an 8x10 print, viewed from about 1ft, the image will look sharp anywhere the circle of confusion is less than this value. There is a concept known as the hyperfocal distance. For any given focal length lens at any given aperture, there is a distance at which the lens can be focused where points from infinity to 1/2 the hyperfocal distance will be "in focus" (i.e. have a circle of confusion value less than some fixed value). Lenses once had hyperfocal distance markings on them, but today (especially on zoom lenses) they are often missing.